Health care fraud in America is costing an estimated $80 billion a year. Who's paying the tab? You Are. CNBC takes you inside the crackdown on a nationwide epidemic.

About the Show

Health Care Hustle

The crackdown on health care fraud in the U.S. is an around-the-clock operation. CNBC's Investigations Inc. follows a joint strike force -- one of nine across the country -- hunting health care fraud in New York City and attempting to recoup millions in taxpayer dollars.

One of the most expensive aspects of the U.S. health care system is fraud. It's happening across the country. Doctors, pharmacists, home health care providers and sometimes even patients…hustling the system. Conservative estimates put health care fraud in the U.S. at $80 billion each year — some say the real number is closer to $160 billion. That's U.S. taxpayer money going into the hands of criminals instead of care.

Award-winning Senior Correspondent Scott Cohn and the CNBC Investigations Inc. team spent six months on the front lines with a joint strike force taking down alleged health fraudsters and criminal rings accused of bilking Medicare and Medicaid out of millions. The strike force — one of nine across the country — is at the heart of a two-year federal crackdown on fraud, and "Health Care Hustle" examines whether it is working

Semi-automatic rifles, ammunition, nunchucks, throwing stars -- it's all in a day's work for the joint strike force tasked with hunting health care fraud. CNBC's Scott Cohn and the Investigations Inc. team travels to Puerto Rico with federal agents who carry an arrest warrant for an armed criminal.

From an artificial leg for a person who doesn’t need it to doling out cash to the homeless, fraudsters are finding ways to bilk the U.S. health care system to the tune of an estimated $80 billion a year.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s debate over the constitutionally of the Affordable Care Act and the future of health care in America has dominated the national conversation for weeks. What’s not been as widely discussed is a little known provision in “Obamacare”, which, if overturned completely, could end up costing the taxpayers billions of dollars.